IV&V • Assessment Services • Program and Project Management

“Perfect is the Enemy of the Good” - Voltaire - A philosophy and generally accepted truth that all project practitioners and managers should embrace. That is, that attainment of perfection is expensive, time consuming and not usually necessary. Project teams, especially those espousing lean development methods should value “good enough” over “perfect.” Time in development work is often the scarcest resource, and exchanging some minor areas of functionality or quality for fast completion is smart and often a good bargain.

"The Cult of the Imperfect" – Sir Robert Watson-Watt, who developed early warning radar in Britain as a countermeasure to Luftwaffe bombing, advocated a concept called the "cult of the imperfect.” He described it as "Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too late, the best never comes." Also consider that achieving perfection may be impossible and so further activity beyond just “good” is increasingly inefficient and expensive.